A band with local connections won an independent music award at recent ceremonies held in Nashville.
The DMC Duo took home EP of the Year in the Pop/Contemporary category at the Josie Music Awards held at the Grand Ole Opry on Sunday, Oct. 27; they’d been nominated for five awards in total. They won for their punchy five-song pop-rock-country EP of original tunes, “Walk, Not Run.”
Singer/guitarist Darrell Adams is originally from Jonestown and currently lives in Myerstown. Singer/percussionist Marisa Dawson is from Fogelsville, Lehigh County; they call Allentown their home base.
They met at a Thanksgiving Eve 2017 show in Bethel, Pennsylvania, where they were both filling in for the same band.
“I was filling in for the band – it was me and another fellow playing guitar – and I had to leave to go to a different show with my own band,” Adams said in a phone interview.
“And then, the other guy called Marisa in to fill in on vocals. So, we met in the middle of the show. The club liked that so much that they asked us to come back and play. That band did a couple shows, and then, (she) and I started performing as a duo in November 2018,” he added.
The name is a remnant of a previous incarnation, if you will.
“Our first show was supposed to be a charity event – it was going to be a trio and we needed a name,” Adams explained. “DMC is actually the first letter of each of our names – the bass player that was supposed to play with us, his name was Curt.”
“The show ended up getting canceled because of (the) weather. (But) here we are now, five, six years later – still have the name, (and) we’re doing original music. (It’s) kind of like the worst name to ever come up with, (but) it stuck, and we’re stuck with it at this point,” he added with a chuckle.
The Josie Awards, established in 2015, honor independent music in all forms and genres, according to its website; the judges are musicians and industry professionals. Adams said the duo was nominated for four awards back in 2023.
“Last year was our first experience” (with the awards), Adams said. “It came on the radar when we really started pushing original music. We submitted an application for a few things, and some other people had nominated us.”
They also applied for the awards themselves this year, he said.
“Last year, I think they said they had 59,000 submissions – this year was over 75,000 submissions,” he said. “I think it was 3.2 percent (of those) got nominations, and I think there were 196 individual winners out of those 75,000 submissions.”
He was pleased that their win for EP of the Year “was based on our music, not just us as a performer.”
“Walk, Not Run” was recorded at Soundmine Studios in Stroudsburg. Adams writes the band’s music, while Dawson writes most of the lyrics.
“There was one song (‘Love You Anyway’) that I started on a co-write down in Nashville in 2015,” Adams said. “It wasn’t finished, we (just) had a chorus. And then, she did all the lyrics except for that chorus.”
As evidenced by the EP, they’re influenced by a variety of artists.
“She’s a big Carole King, Pat Benatar, Linda Ronstadt fan,” he said. “I’m kind of all over the place – obviously where I grew up, it was a lot of classic rock.
“But then, years ago, I started doing country stuff and drew myself to that. I like a little bit of everything. We started with the thought of we were going to be country-leaning, because there’s a lot easier opportunity with country as far as radio station airplay and opening acts and things like that.”
He thinks the Pop/Contemporary distinction, though, for which the Josie Award was given, is “probably now where you could land a lot of the music.”
“Although, some of it can cross to country; some of it could go to a rock radio station, which is a great thing except when someone asks you what kind of music you play,” he added.
The pair plays shows across the midstate and beyond.
“We play an area that covers New Jersey; we’ve done work in Delaware, all the way out to Carlisle,” Adams said. “We’ve done work in Tennessee; we play the Hershey/Lebanon County area a lot; we’re in Harrisburg a fair amount.”
And their set includes a wide range of covers as well, from artists as varied as Miranda Lambert, Linda Ronstadt, Ed Sheeran, Tom Petty, and Guns n’ Roses.
“We cover a little bit of everything – and that’s what we pride our show on,” he said. “We can play something to suit anybody there. We do oldies from the ’50s (all the way) to Lady Gaga.”
Catch DMC Duo at the following upcoming shows:
- Sunday, Nov. 24, 2 p.m.: A’Dello Vineyard and Winery, Perkiokmenville
- Saturday, Dec. 7, 9 p.m.: The Hideaway Bar at Esposito’s, Reading
- Friday, Dec. 13, 5 p.m.: Klinger’s at the Airport, Reading
- Saturday, Dec. 14, 9 p.m.: Porter’s Pub, Easton
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